What currents collided within the 1st international. Four internationals
From September 3 to 8, 1866, the First Congress of the First International was held in Geneva, in which 60 delegates representing 25 sections and 11 workers' societies of Great Britain, France, Switzerland and Germany took part. During the meetings, it was decided that the trade unions should organize the economic and political struggle of the proletariat against the wage labor system and the power of capital. Other decisions taken included an 8-hour working day, the protection of women and the prohibition of child labor, free polytechnic education, and the introduction of workers' militias instead of standing armies.
What is an international?
The International is an international organization that unites socialist, social democratic, and some other parties in many countries. It represents the interests of workers and is called upon to fight against the exploitation of the working class by big capital.
How many internationals were there?
1st international emerged on September 28, 1864 in London as the first mass international organization of the working class. It united cells from 13 European countries and the USA. The union united not only workers, but also many petty-bourgeois revolutionaries. The organization existed until 1876. In 1850, there was a split in the leadership of the union. The German organization advocated an immediate revolution, but it was not possible to organize it out of the blue. This caused a split in the Central Committee of the union and led to repression falling on the disparate cells of the union.
Unofficial symbol of the Third International (1920) Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
2nd international- an international association of socialist workers' parties, created in 1889. Members of the organization made decisions on the impossibility of an alliance with the bourgeoisie, the inadmissibility of joining bourgeois governments, held protests against militarism and war, etc. Friedrich Engels played an important role in the activities of the International until his death in 1895. During the First World War, the radical elements that were part of the association held a conference in Switzerland in 1915, laying the foundation for the Zimmerwald Association, on the basis of which the Third International (Comintern) emerged.
2½ international- an international workers' association of socialist parties (also known as the "Two-Half International" or the Vienna International). It was founded on February 22-27, 1921 in Vienna (Austria) at a conference of socialists from Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Spain, Poland, Romania, the USA, France, Switzerland and other countries. The 2½ International sought to reunite all three existing internationals in order to ensure the unity of the international labor movement. In May 1923, a single Socialist Workers' International was formed in Hamburg, but the Romanian section refused to join the new association.
3rd International (Comintern)- an international organization that united communist parties of various countries in 1919-1943. The Comintern was founded on March 4, 1919 on the initiative of the RCP (b) and its leader V.I. Lenin for the development and dissemination of the ideas of revolutionary international socialism, as opposed to the socialism of the Second International, the final break with which was caused by the difference in positions regarding the First World War and the October Revolution revolution in Russia. The Comintern was dissolved on May 15, 1943. Joseph Stalin explained this decision that the USSR was no longer making plans to establish pro-Soviet, communist regimes on the territory of European countries. In addition, by the early 1940s, the Nazis had destroyed almost all Comintern cells in continental Europe.
In September 1947, Stalin gathered the socialist parties and created Cominform - the Communist Information Bureau, as a replacement for the Comintern. Cominform ceased to exist in 1956 shortly after the 20th Congress of the CPSU.
4th international- a communist international organization whose task was to implement the world revolution and build socialism. The International was founded in France in 1938 by Trotsky and his supporters, who believed that the Comintern was under the complete control of the Stalinists and was incapable of leading the international working class to gain political power. The Trotskyist movement is represented in the world today by several political internationals. The most influential of them are:
— Reunited Fourth International
— International Socialist Tendency
— Committee for a Workers' International (CWI)
— International Marxist Tendency (IMT)
— International Committee of the Fourth International.
75 years ago Joseph Stalin decided to dissolve the Comintern. The Communist International, which declared its goal to “accelerate the victory of the communist revolution throughout the world,” was the third in a row.
The first International in history was founded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The International Workers' Association they created united organizations from 13 European countries and the USA. This happened on September 28, 1864 in London. As Marx wrote, “The International was founded to replace the socialist and semi-socialist sects with a genuine organization of the working class for struggle.” This idea determined the famous slogan: “Workers of all countries, unite!”
1st International
The temporary charter of the partnership allowed both individual and collective membership. In addition to Marx, Engels and their supporters, the 1st International included French radicals, Proudhonists, British reformist trade unions, Russian anarchists led by Mikhail Bakunin and others. Such a diverse composition of the international organization made ideological clashes within its ranks inevitable. The history of the 1st International, according to Marx, was “the continuous struggle of the General Council (the governing body of the partnership. - HE.) against sects and amateurish experiments that sought to gain a foothold within the International itself in spite of the genuine movement of the working class.” Marx defended the proletarian character of the movement, which was reflected in the “Founding Manifesto” he wrote, which directly stated: “The conquest of political power becomes the great duty of the working class.”
The General Council launched propaganda of the ideas of Marx and the principles of the International among workers, issuing leaflets and publishing appeals in newspapers. The partnership advocated for the democratization of the electoral system in Great Britain, raised funds to help participants in the strike movement, organized workers' protests in the struggle for an eight-hour working day, and organized solidarity rallies on the anniversaries of the Polish uprisings.
The defeat of the Paris Commune at the end of spring 1871 had a negative impact on the state of affairs in the 1st International: the French labor movement was paralyzed, British trade unions withdrew from the General Council, etc. In 1876, the first mass international organization of the working class was officially dissolved by the decision of its Philadelphia Conference.
2nd International
On July 14, 1889, the centenary of the storming of the Bastille, the First Congress of the 2nd International began its work in Paris. About 390 delegates from 20 countries of Europe and America took part in it. Russia, among others, was represented by a member of the “Emancipation of Labor” group, Georgy Plekhanov, and the theorist of revolutionary populism Pyotr Lavrov, elected to the congress bureau, read an abstract on the situation of socialism in Russia at a meeting on July 17 before its participants.
The 2nd International became an international association of socialist parties, many of which shared the ideas of Marxism. The formation and strengthening of these parties was facilitated by both the increase in the size of the working class and the dissemination of the works of Marx and Engels. After the defeat of the Paris Commune, Marx’s works “The Civil War in France”, “Critique of the Gotha Programme”, as well as the second and third volumes of “Capital”, prepared for publication by Engels, appeared.
Engels played a major role in the creation of the 2nd International. However, after the death of the second founder of Marxism, his student Eduard Bernstein questioned the strategic orientation of the theory - the socialist revolution. He stated: “The final goal, whatever it may be, is nothing to me, movement is everything.” Supporters of this approach began to be called revisionists. The leading theoreticians of the 2nd International spoke out against the revision of Marxism. “For social democracy there is an inextricable link between social reform and social revolution: the struggle for social reform is the means, and social revolution is the goal,” retorted Rosa Luxemburg.
In the beginning During the First World War, the socialists of Germany, France, Great Britain, Belgium and other countries, by voting for war loans, thereby abandoned the anti-war ideas that they had previously widely propagated and violated the principle of solidarity of workers of different countries. This resulted in the collapse of the 2nd International. By an evil irony of fate, the collapse occurred on the eve of celebrations dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the creation of the 1st International.
True, this story had a continuation, and it was called the 2½th (two-half) International. The International Association of Socialist Parties, also known as the Vienna International, was founded at a conference of socialists from Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Spain, Poland, Romania, the USA, France, Switzerland and other countries, held in Vienna on February 22–27, 1921. All its members did not share the course of the 2nd International, criticizing both conciliation and the social chauvinism of the right-wing socialists. At the same time, neither the Leninist understanding of the dictatorship of the proletariat nor the Bolshevik methods of its implementation were acceptable to them. The famous Austrian social democrat Friedrich Adler became the secretary of the 2½th International. Among the leaders of this international organization were the Russian Menshevik internationalist Yuli Martov, famous European politicians Otto Bauer, Robert Grimm, James Ramsay MacDonald and Jean Longuet.
Brussels Congress of the 2nd International
The leaders of the 2½th International sought to reunite the three internationals that existed at that time in order to ensure the unity of the international labor movement. They failed to find mutual understanding with the leaders of the Comintern created in 1919. As a result, in May 1923, at a congress in Hamburg, the 2nd and 2½th internationals announced the unification and formation of the Socialist Workers' International. In 1951, the successor to the latter was the Socialist International (Socintern).
3rd International (Comintern)
On March 2–6, 1919, on the initiative of the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin and the RCP(b), the founding congress of the Communist International took place. For this purpose, 52 delegates from 35 parties and groups from 21 countries arrived in Moscow. In his report, Lenin stated that bourgeois democracy, which was defended by the 2nd International under the guise of “democracy in general,” is, in essence, a class dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. By calling on the workers to unite on the principles of proletarian internationalism, the First Congress of the Comintern, according to Lenin, only hoisted “the banner of communism, around which the forces of the revolutionary proletariat were supposed to gather.”
The Founding Congress adopted a “Manifesto”, which emphasized: “Our task is to generalize the revolutionary experience of the working class, to cleanse the movement from the admixture of opportunism and social-patriotism that is corrupting it, to unite the efforts of all truly revolutionary parties of the world proletariat and thereby facilitate and accelerate victory of the communist revolution throughout the world." Money was spent on preparing such a revolution, which Soviet Russia desperately needed. A socialist of Russian origin, widely known in Europe, Anzhelika Balabanova, who, by Lenin’s decision, was secretary at the First and Second Congresses, argued: “The Comintern had unlimited funds of the Soviet government, which at that time was concerned not so much about the position of the Russian people as about control over the revolutionary workers movement in the world." In order to establish such control, at the Second Congress, held in the summer of 1920 in Petrograd, the document “Twenty-one conditions for admission to the Communist International” was adopted. According to the American historian Kermit Mackenzie, these conditions played a "historically important role in splitting the socialist parties of Europe, clearly reducing the number of sympathizers of the Comintern."
According to the charter, the governing bodies of the Communist International were the World Congress, the Executive Committee and its Small Bureau (later the Presidium). The RCP(b) was only one of the sections of the organization. However, in reality, Grigory Zinoviev, a candidate member and then a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), became the chairman of the Comintern Executive Committee, and all key decisions were carried out under the control of the leadership of the Bolshevik party. And it set a course to purge the parties that were part of the Comintern from people whom it considered too independent and not entirely loyal to Moscow.
In 1923, an attempt was made to “export the revolution”: Karl Radek, Georgy Pyatakov, Joseph Unschlicht, Vasily Schmidt and a group of military men (Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Joachim Vatsetis and others) went to Germany to help the German communists. A huge sum of 300 million gold rubles was allocated to finance the German revolution. After the failure of the “German October,” Grigory Zinoviev and Joseph Stalin declared social democracy a “wing of fascism,” which dealt a blow to the international labor movement. The Comintern program, adopted in 1928 at the VI Congress in Moscow, stated that only world revolution and the world dictatorship of the proletariat are capable of liberating humanity from capitalism.
The decision to dissolve the Comintern was made by Stalin. This was announced on May 15, 1943 - after the opening of the Washington Conference a few days earlier. At it, US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill discussed future military operations of the anti-Hitler coalition in general and the issue of creating a Second Front in Europe in particular, which was extremely important for the Soviet Union. By dissolving the 3rd International, Stalin made it clear that the Comintern’s plans for the “Bolshevization” of Europe were a thing of the past.
At the very end of that year, a new anthem appeared in the USSR. The former Bolshevik “International”, which began with the words: “Rise up, branded with a curse, / The whole world of hungry and slaves!”, remained only a party anthem. And the new national anthem received more patriotic and less militant first lines: “The indestructible union of free republics / United forever by Great Rus'.”
4th International
However, the last international was the so-called 4th, at the origins of which stood one of the leaders of the October Revolution, Leon Trotsky. However, this structure collapsed even before the Comintern was dissolved in the USSR.
After his expulsion from the Soviet Union in 1929, Trotsky believed that the Comintern, under the complete control of Stalin, was unable to lead the international working class to the conquest of political power and world revolution. The founding conference of the 4th International took place on September 3, 1938 in the suburbs of Paris. For security reasons, it was announced that it would be held in Switzerland. Mandates were held by four people each from France and the United States, and one each from Greece, Great Britain, Brazil and Belgium. Trotsky, who was living in Mexico by that time, was unable to attend the conference.
Trotsky was at the helm of the 4th International for less than two years. On August 20, 1940, he was mortally wounded in Mexico City by Soviet intelligence agent Ramon Mercader and died the next day. After the death of the founder, the international organization split into several small groups of Trotskyists warring among themselves.
International 1st International Workers' Association (1864-76), the first mass international organization of the proletariat, the founders and leaders of which were K. Marx and F. Engels. I. 1st was the most important stage in the struggle of the founders of scientific communism for the proletarian party, the continuation of the work they began in the Union of Communists (See Union of Communists).
I. 1 arose during the years of the highest prosperity of pre-monopoly capitalism, in the context of the rise of the general democratic and labor movement of the early 60s. 19th century Having grown numerically and enriched by the experience of the revolutions of 1848-49, the working class of the economically most developed countries of Western Europe, freeing itself from the influence of the bourgeoisie, took the path of an independent political movement. I. 1st was founded on September 28, 1864 at an international meeting that was convened in St. Martin's Hall in London by English and French workers who jointly protested against the suppression of the Polish national liberation uprising of 1863-64 by the European powers and sought to create an international a workers' association to defend common class interests. The meeting was also attended by representatives of Polish, Italian, Irish and German workers, among them was Marx; “...among all the participants,” wrote F. Engels, “there was only one person who clearly understood what was happening and what needed to be founded: this was the man who, back in 1848, threw out a call to the world: “Proletarians of all countries, unite!” (F. Engels, see K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, 2nd ed., vol. 22, p. 355). Marx joined the steering committee elected at the meeting (later called the General Council) and the narrower Standing Committee, selected from its members. Rallying around himself the most conscious members of the council, he actually headed I. 1st, putting an end to the attempts of bourgeois elements (G. Mazzini and others) to become the head of the labor movement. The Founding Manifesto and Charter of the International Workers' Association prepared by Marx (see ibid., vol. 16, pp. 3-15) were approved by the General Council on November 1, 1864. These most important program documents formulated in the most general form the goals of the proletarian movement - the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of the power of the working class - and its basic principle was proclaimed - “the liberation of the working class must be won by the working class itself.” In order to unite the disparate detachments of the European working class, it was necessary to put forward a program that “...would not close the door to the English trade unions, the French, Belgian, Italian and Spanish Proudhonists and the German Lassalleans” (Engels F., there same, vol. 22, p. 61). Joint participation in class battles, unity of action of the international proletariat, exchange of experience in the press and at congresses should have gradually led the working masses to perceive the ideas of Marxism as a teaching that reveals the objective laws of social development and meets the fundamental interests of the working class of all countries. The charter recorded a combination of democratic rights of national organizations with centralization, which ensured the unity of action of the proletariat on an international scale. Leadership was exercised by the General Council, elected annually by the general congress and located until 1872 in London, and then in New York. In each country, the 1st I. relied on already existing workers' organizations or on newly formed sections. In fact, directing the work of the General Council and I. 1st as a whole, Marx served as corresponding secretary for Germany and some other countries. In September 1870, Engels, who moved from Manchester to London, also joined the Council. Marx and Engels rallied around them the advanced workers of various countries, who gradually switched to the position of scientific socialism. The support of Marx and Engels throughout the activities of I. I. were A. Bebel, W. Liebknecht (Germany), I. F. Becker (Switzerland), F. A. Sorge (USA), H. Mesa, P. Iglesias ( Spain), members of the General Council - the Germans F. Lessner, I. G. Eccarius, the French E. Dupont, O. Serrayer, P. Lafargue, the Swiss G. Jung, the Englishman R. Shaw, the Irishman J. P. McDonnell, Hungarian L. Frankel, Pole V. Vrublevsky and others. Russian revolutionaries P. I. Utin, G. A. Lopatin, E. L. Dmitrieva, P. L. Lavrov actively participated in the activities of I. 1st. From the first days, the efforts of the General Council were aimed at involving workers from different countries in the ranks of the I. 1st, organizing solidarity actions of workers and strike struggles, and developing the workers' press. I. 1st became the organizer of political uprisings of the proletariat (the fight for democratic electoral reform in Great Britain, etc.), resistance to the aggressive policy of the ruling classes. The development of the program and tactics of the international proletarian movement began to be influenced by the conferences and congresses of I. 1st. The London Conference of the International Working Men's Association (September 25-29, 1865), in whose meetings the leaders of sections on the continent and members of the General Council participated, approved the agenda of the upcoming congress. Despite the opposition of the French and Belgian Proudhonists, Marx achieved the inclusion in it of a demand for the restoration of Poland on a democratic basis, which created the basis for joint actions by workers of various countries against the reactionary foreign policy of European governments. By refusing this demand, the Proudhonists in fact justified the treacherous policy of the ruling classes of Great Britain and France towards Poland and showed a lack of understanding of the significance of the national liberation struggle. In the discussion that took place in the General Council in the spring of 1866 on the national question, Marx criticized the position of the Proudhonists. At his request, Engels wrote the article “What does the working class care about Poland,” in which he substantiated the need for the proletariat to have an irreconcilable attitude towards the policy of national oppression (see ibid., vol. 16, pp. 156-66). The first Congress of the 1st was held in Geneva on September 3-8, 1866. 60 people took part in it, representing 25 sections and 11 workers' societies in Great Britain, France, Switzerland and Germany. Unable to attend the congress, Marx prepared draft resolutions (see “Instructions to the delegates of the Provisional Central Council on certain issues”, ibid., pp. 194-203), which formed the basis for the congress’s decisions to legally limit the working day to 8 hours for everyone workers, the protection of women's and children's labor, compulsory polytechnic education, the abolition of standing armies, etc. Of particular importance was the resolution on trade unions, which was directed both against the Proudhonists, who denied the need for trade union organizations, and the German Lassalleans, who neglected them, and against the English reformist leaders , which reduced the activities of trade unions to purely economic struggle within the framework of capitalist society. The resolution closely linked the economic struggle of the proletariat with the political one. The Congress noted the great educational significance of cooperation, which shows workers the possibility of a socialist organization of labor, which is feasible, however, only after the transfer of power into their hands. Congress approved the Charter of I. 1st. The decisions of the Geneva Congress, which completed the period of formation of the I. as a mass proletarian international organization, were a significant success of the programmatic and organizational principles of Marxism. The second congress took place in Lausanne (Switzerland) on September 2-8, 1867. It was attended by more than 60 delegates representing workers in Switzerland, Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and Italy. Among the German, Belgian and other delegates, a significant group of supporters of collective land ownership emerged who demanded that the agrarian issue be included in the agenda of the next congress. A resolution was also adopted recognizing political freedoms as a necessary condition for the social liberation of the proletariat. Since the autumn of 1867, in connection with the raising in the General Council of the issue of supporting the national liberation movement in Ireland, Marx’s struggle against reformism and the great power tendencies of trade unionist leaders (J. Odger, B. Lecraft, etc.) intensified. “The policy of Marx and Engels on the Irish question,” wrote V.I. Lenin in 1914, “provided the greatest example, which has retained enormous practical significance to this day, of how the proletariat of oppressing nations should relate to national movements” (Poln. sobr. cit., 5th ed., vol. 25 p. 307). The third congress took place in Brussels on September 6-13, 1868. About 100 delegates from Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Switzerland took part in it. The General Council devoted a number of its meetings in July and August to the preparation of the congress, in which Marx was directly involved. The annual report of the General Council and the most important draft resolutions were drawn up by Marx. The strengthening of the current of left-wing Proudhonism, reflecting the general movement to the left of the working masses in France, affected the decisions of the congress. Many French and Belgian delegates supported the delegation of the General Council in its struggle against the group of right-wing Proudhonists led by A. Tholen. Of great importance was the resolution on the socialization of the land, as well as railways, mines, and mines, which was adopted after a report made by the Belgian socialist S. de Pape based on materials received from Marx. Contrary to the right-wing Proudhonists, a resolution formulated by Marx was also adopted, which stated that the introduction of machines entails the organization of collective labor and creates the prerequisites for the transition to a socialist production system (see K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, 2nd ed., vol. 16, p. 328). The Congress recommended that workers of all nationalities study Marx's work Capital, published in the spring of 1867. The decisions of the Brussels Congress meant the victory in India of revolutionary proletarian socialism over petty-bourgeois reformism. Further struggle for the establishment of the principles of Marxism in the international labor movement unfolded against the anarchist-sectarian views of M. A. Bakunin and his supporters. Having failed in his attempt to admit the anarchist organization Alliance of Socialist Democracy, which he founded in 1868, into the I. 1st, Bakunin in 1869 announced the dissolution of the Alliance, preserving it within the I. 1st as a secret organization. By this time, there was a tendency towards the formation of the first independent parties of the working class in individual countries on the basis of the I. program. In September 1868 in Germany, the Nuremberg Congress of the Union of Workers' Educational Societies, at which 14 thousand workers were represented, announced its adherence to the program of I. 1st. In August 1869, the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany was founded at a congress in Eisenach. The fourth congress took place in Basel (Switzerland) on September 6-11, 1869. It was attended by 78 delegates from Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. A representative of American workers, the delegate of the National Labor Union E.C. Cameron, also arrived. The decisions of the Basel Congress, which confirmed the Brussels resolutions on the socialization of the land, dealt a final blow to the right-wing Proudhonists and played a decisive role in determining the agrarian program of the 1st; This program was based on the Marxist principle of an alliance between the working class and the peasantry. Already here, fundamental disagreements emerged between Marx’s supporters and the Bakuninists on the issue of proletarianism, revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, which made it impossible for the Bakuninists to remain in the ranks of I. I. in the future. On the question of the right of inheritance, the abolition of which Bakunin put forward as a means for the speedy transfer of land from private owners to society, Marx compiled for the Congress the “Report of the General Council on the Right of Inheritance”; it criticized Bakunin’s utopian idea of achieving socialism through this measure and showed that it could only alienate the peasantry at a time when Ivan I was faced with the practical task of expanding his influence in the countryside. In the winter of 1869-70, sections of the I. 1st launched propaganda for the decisions of the Basel Congress on the agrarian question. In Great Britain, on the initiative of Marx and with the participation of the English members of the General Council, the Land and Labor League was founded; The League's program, along with the demand for the nationalization of land, included the Chartist demand for universal suffrage. The Geneva sections of I. 1st published the Manifesto for Agricultural Affairs, compiled by I. F. Becker. workers", which became widespread in Germany and Austria-Hungary and was then translated into Russian. In an effort to help the German Social Democrats (Eisenachites) develop revolutionary tactics on the agrarian question, Engels, in the preface to the new edition of his work “The Peasant War in Germany,” pointed out the need for a differentiated approach to various categories of peasants and an orientation towards a strong alliance of the industrial working class with the villages. -X. the proletariat and the working peasantry (see ibid. pp. 412-20). After the Basel Congress, Bakunin and his supporters, seeking to blow up I. 1st from within, began a campaign against the General Council. In the Geneva newspaper "Egalité" they published a number of articles in which they slanderously accused the General Council of violating the charter, of allegedly being carried away by the Irish question and imposing it on the international labor movement to the detriment of the interests of the proletariat. In a circular letter to all sections of I. 1st, known as the “Confidential Message,” Marx refuted all Bakunin’s accusations against the General Council, showing, in particular, the international significance of the struggle for support of the Irish national liberation movement as opposed to the chauvinistic position of the British trade unionist leaders on the Irish question and the national nihilism of the Bakuninists themselves. Marx and Engels received support in the struggle against Bakunism from the Russian Section of the 1st International (See Russian Section of the 1st International), founded at the end of 1869 - beginning of 1870 in Geneva. At the request of the section members, K. Marx became its representative (corresponding secretary for Russia) in the General Council. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 prevented the convening of the next, 5th Congress of the 1st, which was supposed to meet in September 1870 in Mainz. In appeals dated July 23 and September 9, 1870, issued on behalf of the General Council, Marx analyzed the nature of the war in its two stages. In accordance with this, the tactics of the European proletariat in relation to the war were determined. The documents of the General Council contrasted bourgeois chauvinism with the international unity of the working class and the brotherhood of German and French workers. Thanks to I. 1st, during the war, for the first time in history, widespread anti-war protests by the working class of various countries took place. An example of genuine proletarian internationalism was shown by the German Social Democratic Workers' Party (Eisenach). In the Reichstag on July 21, 1870, W. Liebknecht and A. Bebel refused to vote for war loans. On September 5, the day after the collapse of the Second Empire in France, the Central Committee of the Eisenach Party issued the so-called Brunswick Manifesto, in which it demanded the immediate conclusion of an honorable peace with the French Republic without annexations and indemnities. Marx strongly recommended that French workers use bourgeois-democratic freedoms to create an independent party; he warned the Parisian workers against an untimely uprising at a time when enemy troops stood at the walls of Paris. Marx foresaw that the French bourgeoisie would, without hesitation, call upon Prussian interventionists for help against the rebels. By the time of the revolution on March 18, 1871, the Parisian sections were too weak theoretically and organizationally to lead the French working class, but members of the I. 1st of various nationalities (E. Varlin, L. Frankel, J. Dombrovsky, E. L. Dmitrieva and others .) played a prominent role in the Commune; many of them fell at the barricades. The General Council launched a huge effort in support of the Commune, explaining to workers of all countries the true meaning of the Paris events, calling on them to provide moral and material assistance to the Communards. Marx maintained close contact with the Commune, received information, and gave practical advice regarding the economic, political and military activities of the Commune. On behalf of the General Council, K. Marx wrote an Appeal to all members of the Partnership in Europe and the United States - “The Civil War in France”, in which he revealed the essence of the Commune as the first experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat in history, analyzed its mistakes and causes of defeat and gave a deep theoretical generalization lessons of the Commune. Ivan I's speeches in defense of the first proletarian state in history brought upon him the hatred of the international bourgeoisie. In all countries, persecution began against I. 1st, simple belonging to which was declared a state crime almost everywhere. It was at this moment that the Bakuninists resumed their subversive activities. On September 17-23, 1871, the London Conference of I. delegates took place, the work of which was led by Marx and Engels. It was necessary to draw conclusions from the lessons of the Paris Commune, consolidate these conclusions in the program of I. 1st, striking a blow at sectarianism and anarchism. The focus was on questions about the political struggle of the proletariat, about the dictatorship of the proletariat, about the party. The conference made the most important decision on the need to create an independent political party of the proletariat in each country, as a decisive condition for the victory of the proletarian revolution, and called on the sections to strengthen work in trade unions, among women, as well as in rural areas. In response to the London decisions, the Bakuninists at a separate congress in Sonvilliers (Switzerland) on November 12, 1871 issued the so-called Sonvilliers Circular, which called for the abolition of the General Council and the declaration of complete autonomy of the sections. In an effort to paralyze the harmful effects of anarchist propaganda, Marx and Engels drew up a circular approved by the General Council on March 5, 1872 and known as “Imaginary Schisms in the International,” in which they exposed Bakunin’s intrigues and revealed the petty-bourgeois essence of his eclectic views. The Fifth Congress took place in The Hague on September 2-7, 1872 with the direct participation of Marx and Engels; a fierce struggle unfolded there, as a result of which the Bakuninists, who entered into a bloc with the reformist leaders of the English trade unions, were dealt a crushing blow. Marx’s line was supported by members of the General Council - Blanquists (E. Vaillant and others), congress delegates F. A. Sorge, I. F. Becker, P. Lafargue and others. The Congress confirmed the decision of the London Conference on the political action of the working class and included in Charter I. 1st corresponding new paragraph. Bakunin and his supporter J. Guillaume were expelled from I. 1st. Congress decided to publish the report of the General Council on the investigation of the secret activities of the Bakuninists within I. 1st. The report, compiled by Marx and Engels with the participation of P. Lafargue, was published in 1873 under the title “The Alliance of Socialist Democracy and the International Workers' Association.” Due to the unfavorable situation on the continent, where reaction dominated, and the threat that English reformists and Blanquist sectarians could seize leadership of the General Council, the latter, at the insistence of Marx and Engels, was transferred to New York. The General Council was completely renewed: the main core was formed by the leaders of the North American Federation - F. A. Sorge, F. Bolte and others. In the months immediately after the Hague Congress, Marx and Engels continued to be directly involved in the affairs of I. 1st, acting as representatives of the General Council in Europe with the propaganda of the Hague decisions. On their initiative, the New York General Council declared Bakuninist and Bakuninist-supporting organizations that took the path of sabotage of the Hague decisions and the split of I. 1st, outside the ranks of the Association. The Hague Congress marked the ideological victory of Marxism. The historical task of I. 1st was completed, the ideas of Marxism were brought to the forefront of the workers of the economically developed countries of the world. In the new historical situation that arose after the defeat of the Paris Commune, the labor movement was faced with the immediate task of “... creating mass socialist workers’ parties on the basis of individual national states” (Lenin V.I., Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 26, p. 50). Marx and Engels saw the need for a transition to new organizational forms. “Taking into account the state of affairs in Europe, I consider it absolutely useful to temporarily relegate the formal organization of the International to the background... Events and the inevitable development and complication of the situation will themselves take care of the restoration of the International in an improved form,” wrote Marx to F. A. Sorge 27 September 1873 (Marx K. and Engels F., Works, 2nd ed., vol. 33, pp. 508-09). Officially, I. 1st was dissolved by the decision of the Philadelphia Conference of 1876. I. 1st was the forerunner of the communist parties that arose in the 20th century. under the banner of Marxism-Leninism. Its significance is enormous. “He is unforgettable, he is eternal in the history of the workers’ struggle for their liberation,” wrote V.I. Lenin. “He laid the foundation of the building of the world socialist republic, which we have the happiness of building” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 38, p. 230). Lit.: Marx K. and Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 16, 17, 18, 31, 32, 33; Lenin V.I., Karl Marx, Complete. collection cit., 5th ed., vol. 26; his, The Third International and its place in history, ibid., t, 38; him, in the same place, vol. 1, p. 287; vol. 4, p. 170-71; Minutes of the General Council of the First International, [vol. 1-5], M., 1961-65; Basel Congress of the First International, September 6-11, 1869, [M.-L.], 1934; London Conference of the First International, September 17-23, 1871. [Protocols, M.], 1936; Hague Congress of the First International, September 2-7, 1872. Protocols and documents, M., 1970; The First International and the Paris Commune. Documents and materials, M., 1972; Die Internationale in Deutschland (1864-1872). Dokumente und Materialien, B., 1964; La Premiere Internationale. Recueil documents, v. 1-2, Geneve, 1962; The First International, part I (1864-1870) - part 2 (1870-1876) - part 3. The First International in historical science, M., 1964-68; K. Marx. Biography, M., 1968; F. Engels. Biography, M., 1970; From the history of Marxism and the international labor movement. To the 100th anniversary of the founding of the 1st International, M., 1964; Marx and some issues of the international labor movement of the 19th century (Articles and documents), M., 1970; Kunina V. E., Karl Marx and the English labor movement (1845-1883), M., 1968; Kolpinsky N. Yu., The activities of F. Engels during the years of the 1st International, M., 1971; Kozmin B.P., Russian section of the First International, M., 1957; Knizhnik-Vetrov I. S., Russian activists of the First International and the Paris Commune, M.-L., 1964; Koroteeva A., The Hague Congress of the 1st International, M., 1963; Gonzalez A., History of the Spanish sections of the International Workers' Association. 1868-1873, M., 1964; Grigorieva I.V., The workers and socialist movement in Italy in the era of the 1st International, M., 1966; 1 The International and the Paris Commune. Index of literature published in the USSR. 1917-1970, M., 1971.
Material from Uncyclopedia
The 1st International (International Workers' Association) is the first international mass revolutionary organization founded by K. Marx and F. Engels in 1864. On July 23, 1863, a meeting of representatives of English and French workers took place in London, which decided to create an international organization proletariat. A committee was elected to develop program documents for the association. On his instructions, shoemaker J. Odger wrote an appeal “To the workers of France from the workers of England” - a clear economic program. The response of the French workers, written by the engraver A. Tholen, ended with the words: “Our salvation is in solidarity.” Both documents had a common idea - the need for international unity. On the basis of this platform, the preparatory committee established contact with representatives of other nationalities and prepared the founding assembly of the International Workers' Association. It took place on September 28, 1864 in London. The Partnership included English trade unionists, French Proudhonists, and Italian Mazzinists. K. Marx wrote the “Founding Manifesto of the International Workers' Association” and the general charter.
The central idea of the manifesto was the program position of the proletarian movement: “... the liberation of the working class must be won by the working class itself” (Marx K., Engels F. Soch., vol. 16, p. 12). Of particular importance was the thesis that the number of workers “only decides the matter when the masses are covered by the organization and are guided by knowledge” (ibid.). This phrase contains the idea of the need for a political party of the working class. K. Marx substantiated the conclusion about the need for international solidarity of the proletarians of all countries, uniting their efforts in the fight against a common enemy - the international bourgeoisie.
The charter defined the organizational forms of the Partnership and the principles of its leadership; it contained elements of democratic centralism. The Charter took into account the historically established forms of the labor movement in different countries. The International did not oppose itself to already existing workers' organizations, but sought to rely on them and direct their activities towards a single common goal.
The history of the International is the history of the struggle for the spread of Marxist ideas in the labor movement. For a long time, the main opponent of Marxism in the International was Proudhonism (it is based on the views of the French socialist and anarchist theorist P. J. Proudhon. In particular, Proudhon and his followers saw the root cause of social injustice in the state). In the International, the Proudhonists opposed the creation of a proletarian party; They pinned their hopes for the liberation of the working class on the development of cooperation.
The positions of the Marxists turned out to be more attractive to workers, and this was reflected in the decisions of the Brussels Congress of 1868. Contrary to the Proudhonists, the congress adopted resolutions approving the strike struggle, the creation of trade unions and the legal limitation of the working day to eight hours. A strong blow to Proudhonism was dealt by the resolution adopted by Congress on the transfer of land, forests, roads and means of communication to the collective ownership of society. The ideological defeat of Proudhonism was completed at the Basel Congress of 1869. The overwhelming majority of congress delegates came to the conclusion that private ownership of land, mines, and mines should be destroyed.
Then the Russian revolutionary M.A. Bakunin became “enemy No. 1” in the International. Bakunin first appeared in the International at the Basel Congress. During a discussion on the agrarian question, he formulated his concept of “social liquidation.” “By social liquidation,” Bakunin explained, “I mean the abolition of the political and legal state, which sanctions and ensures the appropriation by the few of the products of the labor of the many.” The instrument for carrying out “social liquidation” was to be Bakunin’s secret organization “Alliance of Socialist Democracy”. Bakunin's attempt to legalize the Alliance as a special society within the International met with decisive rebuff from the General Council, which immediately demanded the dissolution of the Alliance. Bakunin agreed, but in reality maintained a secret society that continued its subversive work against the Marxist leadership of the International.
In September 1871, a “secret conference of the Partnership” took place in London. She was faced with the task of implementing the experience and lessons of the Paris Commune in the international labor movement. The main conclusion of the conference was that without an organized, united political party, the working class could not achieve its goal. The London Conference of the International condemned Bakunin's concept of renunciation of political struggle, clearly emphasizing in its documents the idea of the unity of the economic and political struggle of the working class.
Based on the decisions of the conference, the General Council launched a fight against Bakunism. This struggle was completed at the Hague Congress in 1872. The Congress confirmed the decisions of the London Conference on the significance of the political struggle and the role of the political party of the working class in achieving the intended goal - building a classless society. The Congress decided to expel Bakunin and his closest associate, the Swiss anarchist J. Guillaume, from the International for schismatic activities.
Many of the programmatic and tactical principles of the 1st International were subsequently thoroughly tested in the process of class struggle. As for its organizational structure, it no longer corresponded to the scale of the growing labor movement. The task of creating independent proletarian parties came onto the agenda with all urgency. Having completed its tasks, the 1st International was dissolved in 1876.
The internationalization of industrial production in the conditions of the formation of an industrial society prepared the ground for the international solidarity of the labor movement, its transformation into an international force.
The first contacts between workers in Great Britain, France and the German states arose back in 1862. These contacts made it possible in July 1863 to organize meetings of solidarity with the Polish rebels in London, in which not only British representatives, but also delegates of workers and democratic organizations from France, Italy and the German states took part. It was at this meeting that an agreement was reached on the creation of an international association of proletarians. A committee was formed to prepare program documents for the association.
Henri Tholen
The ideological basis of the international labor organization was the appeal of the British shoemaker George Odger “To the workers of France from the workers of Great Britain” and the response to it of the French worker, engraver Henri Tholen. Based on this ideological platform, the preparatory committee established contacts with representatives of other national organizations and prepared the founding meeting of the International Workers' Association.
On September 28, 1864, at a meeting of workers in London, a decision was made to create the International Workers' Association, which later became known as the First International.
- “This Society was established for the purpose of becoming a center of communication and cooperation between labor organizations that exist in different countries of the world and have a common goal, namely, the defense and complete emancipation of the working class.
- The society received the name “International Workers' Association,” as written in its program documents.
The Society included representatives of British trade unions, French anarchists - supporters of P. Proudhon, and Italian Mazzinists. The meeting elected the governing body of the Society - the General Council of the International, the actual leader of which was K. Marx. The General Council was the executive body of the Society and acted between the congresses of the International - the highest bodies of this international workers' organization.
Karl MarxThe main program document of the International, the “Founding Manifesto,” was written by K. Marx. It noted the organization's goal: "The workers can achieve economic and social liberation only by taking state power into their own hands and eliminating private ownership of the means of production... Only the worker himself can liberate the working class."
Quite soon, the 1st International turned into the leading international workers' center. Its programmatic and tactical foundations became the basis for the further struggle of wage workers for their economic rights. When its organizational structures no longer satisfied the growing labor and socialist movement, the 1st International ceased to exist. This happened in 1876.
What necessitated the creation of the 1st International?
1870s - beginning of the 20th century. characterized by the “peaceful” development of the labor movement. This period was marked by rapid economic development and, as a consequence, the numerical growth of hired workers, the number of whom at the end of the 19th century. amounted to 40 million, or more than 30% of the European population. However, working conditions continued to be difficult. The lack of social legislation that would regulate the relationship between employer and employee, and the intensification of exploitation through the intensification of production, low living standards put on the agenda the struggle of workers to improve living conditions and obtain political rights and freedoms.
The most common form of struggle among wage workers during this period was a strike. Thus, in the six most developed countries in 1870 there were several hundred strikes, and by the mid-1890s there were about a million of them annually. Trade unions in the 1870s were the most massive organization in Great Britain alone, but by the end of the 19th century. They are developing large-scale activities in all developed countries. In the early 1870s, the workers' party existed only in Germany. In the second half of the 1890s, workers' parties already existed in 21 countries and by the beginning of the 20th century numbered about 300 thousand members in their ranks.
With the further internationalization of production, the international solidarity of the labor movement is strengthening. Trade unions from different countries sought to create international sectoral associations. At their congresses, they protested against the ban on international labor organizations, stood in solidarity with the workers and socialist parties of Germany, Austria, and Russia, and called on workers to fight for the adoption of labor protection laws and an 8-hour working day.
It was the emergence of workers' and socialist parties that became the main reason for the formation of the Second International as an international association of socialist and workers' parties.
2 International
On July 14, 1889, celebrating the centenary of the storming of the Bastille, in Paris the ruling circles of France decided to open the World Industrial Exhibition, the symbol of technological progress of which was to be the Eiffel Tower. Among the revolutionary-minded French workers, an opposite idea arose: to open the International Socialist Congress - the “world parliament of labor.”
“Capitalists invite... to view and admire the results of the labor of workers who are forced to beg among the greatest wealth that mankind has ever possessed. Therefore, we, socialists, strive for the emancipation of labor and the elimination of the system of wage slavery and the construction of a society in which all workers, regardless of nationality, age, gender, have an equal right to own the wealth created by their labor, we invite the real producers of this wealth to meet with us 14 July in Paris,” proclaimed the address to the workers and socialists of Europe and America.
The huge meeting room - the Petrelli Hall - was already crowded at nine in the morning. On the red canvas of the backstage scenes, the words of K. Marx and F. Engels are written in gold letters: “Workers of all countries, unite!”
At 10 o’clock, on behalf of the Paris organizing commission, its head, Paul Lafargue, sincerely congratulated the congress delegates: “Those who have gathered in this hall - representatives of Europe and America - are not official representatives of their countries. They do not unite under the tricolor or any other flag. They unite under the red banner of the international proletariat." 407 delegates from 20 countries took part in the congress.
2 The International set the goal of its activities to fight for the social rights of workers and improve living conditions. Also at the congress, it was decided to hold mass workers’ demonstrations of solidarity annually on May 1, the anniversary of the tragic events in Chicago in 1886.
“On a fixed date a large international demonstration must be held, namely in such a way that simultaneously in all countries and in all cities on one specific day the workers will appeal to their governments with the demand for the establishment of an 8-hour working day ... Considering that the American Federation of Labor ... has already appointed such a manifestation on May 1, 1890, then the date is approved as the day of the international manifestation. The workers of all countries must organize this demonstration in accordance with the conditions prevailing in their countries,” is written in the resolution of the Congress.
The Congresses of the 2nd International met every two to three years and developed a specific program of struggle to improve the situation of the working people. The formation of the 2nd International testified to the transformation of the workers and with it the socialist movement into an influential political force at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.
On the eve of World War II, the International was a significant political force. The parties that were under his influence united 10 million people, cooperatives - 7 million.
However, the further aggravation of social contradictions also determined the ideological struggle in the international socialist movement on tactics, strategy, theory, especially in the assessment of new phenomena and processes in economics and public policy.